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December 2, 2009

Lizards Change Their Menu To Avoid Predators

by Sam Savage

A scientist from the University of Salamanca and another from Yale University have shown that the presence of predators affects the behavior of Acanthodactylus beershebensis, a lizard species from the Negev Desert in the Near East. According to the study, these reptiles move less and catch less mobile and different prey if they are under pressure from predators.

The scientists studied the species' diet data (trophic ecology) in two different situations "“ with and without predators. The Spanish researcher analyzed the contents of 327 fecal pellets taken from 291 different lizards in order to reconstruct their diet. Ants were the prey most commonly consumed by the lizards, both by those at risk (69.32%) and the controls (67.12%), followed by insects such as termites (19.14% and 19.17% respectively). The difference could be clearly seen in the consumption of seeds, because the lizards hardly consumed these (0.52%) when they were under threat from predators.